Glad
by April Snakehole
Summary: It's their last Gryffindor Halloween party and Lily needs to find James Potter's stupid beautiful hair and stupid adorable face. Features costumed marauders, an embattled Lily, and one very drunk Benjy Fenwick.


A/N: It's been awhile since I wrote fanfic. I'm rusty. Jumping back into the game with a new account so no one can find my horrifying earlier works (that is not a challenge). Have a happy James/Lily Halloween fic for once.  
>Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize is mine. <p>

Benjy Fenwick is Drunk

It was the Halloween party in Gryffindor Tower, and someone had enchanted the Fat Lady to insult everyone who walked in. Tame, very tame by Marauders standards, but Lily was in the mood to tell off James Potter, if only she could find the prat. She knew the Marauders were somewhere; they loved the Halloween party, and would dress up in a group costume every year. And she knew they wouldn't pass up this, their last Halloween at Hogwarts, to cause chaos.

Lily got herself a cup of Firewhiskey, telling herself that Head Girl responsibilities didn't really matter on Halloween. Mary had waved from across the room, a cup in her own hand and a flush to her cheeks that told Lily that her friend was a few drinks ahead of her. Lily waved back, but stayed where she was, scanning the room and ready to pounce when she saw James Potter's stupid beautiful hair and stupid adorable face.

Benjy Fenwick, on the other hand, had other plans.

"Lily! I've _missed _you, y'know!" Suddenly hands were around her waist and Lily was nearly knocked over by the stench of alcohol on the boy's breath.

"Benjy—" she said, pulling his arm off of her. "What are you talking about?"

"Since we broke up, I mean," he said, undeterred but not trying to put his hands back on her. Instead he stood shakily and grinned, eyes half closed and face still a bit too close.

"That was—er—that was _last year_, Benjy," said Lily, rubbing the back of her neck with her free hand.

"I know that," he rubbed a hand across his mouth. "But you're beautiful, Lily—"

"Benjy, please stop. You're just drunk," she said softly. He was a nice enough bloke, and she knew he would be mortified in the morning that he had accosted her like this. He'd taken their breakup well, but it had been all Lily's idea, and he'd been a bit blindsided by it. And now, she realized, the relative easiness of the breakup with Benjy was coming back to haunt her, in the form of one very drunk and very much still hung up ex-boyfriend.

"Yes," he slurred, leaning back against the big chair that was behind him. The occupant of the chair, Marlene McKinnon, gave him a wary look.

"You trashed, Fenwick?" she asked, tipping her own glass towards him.

"Might be, McKinnon, what's't to you?" he said, nose in the air.

"Look, Benjy—"

But he'd swooped forward and placed a sloppy kiss on her cheek. She was fairly certain he was aiming for her mouth, and thanked Merlin and Morgana that he had missed.

"Benjy—"

"You smell amaaaaaazing," he slurred, face still pressed up against her own.

She glanced around in slight panic. She wasn't afraid of Benjy, but didn't know how to extract herself from the situation without causing the boy to blush and run whenever he saw her from then on.

"I'm seeing someone?" Lily heard herself say. "I'm seeing someone. Yeah."

Benjy pulled back, mouth open. "Who, Diggory?"

"I broke up with Diggory," Lily said quickly, a habit by now, and cursed herself. "S-Someone else. I'm seeing someone else."

"You are not," Benjy grinned and went to swoop once again when Lily spotted the long, shaggy hair of Sirius Black. She knew Sirius wouldn't get the wrong idea and would _love_ to tease her about this from years to come. They had become mates lately, and though Lily was still slightly baffled by it, she knew that if anyone was up for some unexplained impromptu lying and mischief, it was Sirius Black.

She grabbed his arm and yanked, crying, "Sweetheart!" as she did. A problem presented itself, though, as she wasn't met with the grey eyes and wolfish grin of Sirius Black, but the startled (stupid, adorable) face she had been looking for all night.

"James!" she gasped.

He grinned crookedly, eyes perplexed and searching hers. "Uh, hi, Lily. Like my costume?" His hair was longer than usual, hitting his shoulders in slight waves. His glasses were on his face, but were half transparent. _A glamour charm's wearing off_, Lily realized. He wore a dark cardinal sweater which was, Lily grudgingly admitted she knew, Sirius' favorite. To top it off, he wore a small sign around his neck that flashed back and forth between the words "I'm Sirius Black" and "Not James Potter" in sparkly golden font.

"You're Sirius for Halloween? That's brill," she said, giggling slightly.

"Yeah," he grinned. "Sirius is me, Remus is Peter, and Peter is Remus. We came as the Marauders."

"You're dating Potter?"

That's right. Benjy.

"What?" James said quickly. "N—"

"Yes!" Lily said, grabbing his arm and yanking him closer to her. "I was telling Fenwick here about us. And how we're… dating. Just… dating up a storm, we are. So." She looked up at James and bugged out her eyes slightly. His eyes were guarded as he stared back at her.

She leaned up to press a slight kiss on his cheek and, blushing and hating herself for it, whispered, "Please."

Finally he nodded slightly and looked back at Benjy, slinging his arm around Lily's shoulders.

"Yeah," he said, only slightly stiffly, and with enough Marauders charm that Lily knew the drunk Benjy would believe it. The boy had always been a bit star struck by the group, she remembered, and always two seconds from breaking up with her so James would stop glaring at him.

"Oh," Benjy said. "Oh, mate, I'm sorry, I didn't know… no clue, in fact. I would never have… if I knew that _you—_"

"Well, we've been keeping it, you know, quiet," Lily said, trying to put a little space between herself and Potter. He felt wonderful, pushed up against her, and all she wanted to do was bury her face in his warm chest and stay there for a bit, just holding him. This was not an acceptable thought to be having, and she knew it. They were friends, and he'd stopped asking her out, stopped even dropping little hints like he had at the start of their friendship last year, stopped harassing her boyfriends. Diggory hadn't said a word about James in the two weeks they'd been seeing each other and Lily was ashamed at how disappointed she was.

"You were—" Benjy pointed wildly, making James and Lily both lean back to keep from getting hit, "just wi' Diggory, though!"

Wishing that drunken Benjy had a worse memory, Lily shrugged, trying to be nonchalant. She glanced up at James to find him looking down at her with a mischievous glint in his eyes that made her swallow, hard. He grinned and lowered his arm from her shoulders to her hips and pulled her in again. Lily dug her nails into his side and felt him flinch.

"Alright, love?" she asked, batting her eyelashes up at him.

"Just fine," James said, and pausing to return the challenging look she was giving him, leaned down to kiss her lightly on the nose.

Lily knew her face was the color of a tomato. She knew it, and she was going to kill James Potter for it later. Kill him thoroughly. Or kiss him. It was a bit of a tossup at the moment.

"When'd you break up?"

Drunken Benjy was like a dog with a bone and oblivious to the fact that he was on neither James nor Lily's radar anymore. Benjy had sat down on the arm of Marlene McKinnon's chair. He seemed to be settling in for a long conversation.

"Broke up with Amos a—a month and a half ago. Been dating, uh," she couldn't seem to say "dating James," so instead she settled for, "this one, for a month now. Keeping it quiet, " she said again, suddenly realizing that this was a terrible plan. Of course Benjy would tell people. _Please let him not remember any of this in the morning_, she thought. "We're Heads, you know."

"Yeah," James said. "Quiet." She could feel his chest rumble when he talked. It was wonderful. Lily looked into her cup. Only half gone, not enough to blame the alcohol for her stuffy head and giddiness.

"What's quiet, Prongs?"

_Of course_, Lily thought, wondering if her face could get any hotter. Because of course, here was Sirius Black, his hair shorter but standing up practically on end, wearing a fake pair of glasses without lenses and a shirt that said "James Ignatius Ferdinand Excelsior Potter" charmed onto the fabric.

"That's subtle," she joked, nodding to the shirt.

"Well otherwise people might think I was any old tosser with bad hair, wouldn't they?" Sirius grinned. His eyes lingered on James hand, still dangerously low on her hips, but he said nothing.

"I'd like to go on the record that those aren't my middle names," James groaned, hand flexing on her hip.

"Lying doesn't become you, Prongs," he said loudly, clapping his hands and turning towards Benjy, "Anyway, what's quiet? Spill, Fenwick."

"Well obviously that Lily and I are dating. We were just telling Benjy of our secret affair. Couldn't keep it secret anymore, see, because Benjy was getting a bit handsy," James said.

"Someone else is getting a bit handsy," Lily growled, moving his hand up to her waist.

"Ah," Sirius waved his hand. "Figured that one out ages ago. Months. You two always doing 'Head Business.' Doesn't take three hours to figure out a schedule, am I right, Ben?" Sirius clapped the boy on the shoulder.

"No, no, no," he said, shaking his head enthusiastically and then stopping, abruptly. "She was dating Amos last—last month."

"Ah, Fenwick. Can't you spot a fake relationship when you see one?" Sirius roared, clapping the boy on the back again. Benjy reeled a bit. "Amos and Lily were never really together. Lily has better taste than that." Lily glared and Sirius grinned toothily, pushing her closer to James.

"I guess—oh, uh, yeah. Guess that's… sense." Benjy nodded too hard and fell backwards into Marlene's lap. She tried to help the boy sit back up, but Benjy kept toppling over.

"All right, Fenwick?"

"Just—give me… minute."

Lily sighed in relief and took a step away from James. She looked up and had just started to thank him when Benjy sprang up again, staring between the two of them.

Sirius cackled. "I like you, Fenwick," he said, about to clap him on the back again but stopping when the boy flinched away.

"Thanks, Black," he grinned goofily up at the boy.

James pulled Lily back to him. She looked up and he shrugged, looking back to the amazingly conscious Benjy. He and Sirius were now, suddenly, in an intense conversation about how Sirius had always thought the kid quite cool, yes, really, there was no reason they hadn't hung out before, was there? James and Lily stood there for a half a minute, listening to one drunken buffoon chatter at another, before Lily felt James' hand inching downward. Lily growled. _Two can play_, she thought, and gave into her earlier impulse. Placing her hand on his wonderfully solid chest, she turned and buried her face into his shirt. He smelled wonderful and Lily giggled when she felt James freeze. She moved her nose up to rub at the collar of his shirt before she heard Sirius' raucous laughter. When she pulled back, she saw James' face, eyes dangerous, glinting with mischief and challenge. Worse, Lily knew her eyes reflected the same.

Too close to him to think straight, she reached up and touched his face. He turned his head to kiss her palm. She wrinkled her nose and giggled, moving the hand down to his shoulder. And then he was leaning down and her eyes were fluttering closed. She was ready for this kiss. She was ready for the kiss she had been waiting on for months, the one she was terrified of, the one she had dated Diggory to distract herself from.

She felt James exhale, so close, and the anticipation was just about to kill her when she felt the sudden absence of James' arm around her waist. Her eyes slammed open.

"Fenwick's asleep," he said gently, not looking at her.

Benjy, the boy with the worst possible timing, was indeed asleep, and sprawled back into the lap of Marlene, who was also passed out.

"Oh," Lily said quietly, hoping she didn't sound too disappointed. She cleared her throat and blinked a few times. What had she been thinking? "Thanks. He's—he's nice and I wanted to let him down easy, you know. We dated—he and I did, that is," she said.

James nodded. "I knew you dated Fenwick. Last year, yeah?"

"Yeah. Apparently he isn't over me," she waved a hand and laughed.

A shadow passed across James' eyes and he took another step away from her. "You're welcome. I need to find Peter," he said abruptly, and left.

Lily let out a huge breath and leaned back against the wall. She almost forgot she wasn't alone until someone poked her sharply in the stomach.

"For Merlin's sake—"

"Tell him."

Sirius Black was an obnoxious wizard.

"What?"

"You obviously fancy him. You fancy James," Sirius said, poking her in the stomach again.

"Hey—what—no!"

"You have terrible timing, but then so does he—"

"I don't fancy James, you idiot." She poked him back. "That glamour charm for your hair did things to your brain." She took a long drink from her cup.

"You were drooling for that kiss, Red." She could still hear him laugh, even if she refused to look at him. "It's okay."

"He's a—a good looking bloke. We were trying to fool Benjy. We both got caught up in the moment. We've been drinking. Not like he thinks of me that way anymore."

Sirius' answer was a prolonged peal of laughter so loud people stopped their conversations to stare. Lily hit him on the shoulder. "Shut up, will you, people will think I cursed you."

Sirius pulled his fake glasses off of his face to wipe the tears that had formed.

"Did you really just tell me that you think that James Potter doesn't fancy you? He asked you out enough, Red, what more do you want from him? A Howler? For Merlin's sake, I almost just put 'I fancy the pants off of Lily Evans,' on this shirt so people would know who I am, but it was too long."

"He hasn't asked me out in ages, Sirius. It's fine. We're mates, he and I, because of being Heads and that's good—better. When he fancied me, he didn't really know me, so it's better that we're mates now. I care for him. As a mate. Very much." She took another drink.

"But you fancy him, too," Sirius said. His voice was softer now, and when she looked up it wasn't into the teasing eyes of a Marauder but the compassionate eyes of a friend.

"Yeah, I do," she whispered.

"Go tell him that," he said quietly, nodding towards the portrait hole. "He's so used to you rejecting him that he can't tell you almost shagged him just now."

"I didn't almost—"

"You two were making _me _blush, Red."

Lily grinned despite herself. Closing her eyes and leaning back against the wall again, she shook her head slightly. "I've been awful to him, Sirius. Turning him down all those years, calling him things. He deserves someone who hasn't threatened to castrate him."

"Eh. He's a prat a lot of the time. And it's not as if I haven't threatened to castrate him." Lily smiled. "At this point, that's a requisite for the people who he lo—cares for. Go tell him. He's probably outside cooling down," Sirius winked, and squeezed her shoulder.

Sirius was right, of course. James was just outside the Common Room, leaning against the stone wall, eyes closed, breathing deep.

"Hey," she said quietly.

His eyes slammed open and he sprung up from the wall. "Oh! Hey… uh…"

"I just wanted to thank you. I—Benjy was coming on pretty strong and I thought… well, I thought you were Sirius."

"Oh," he said, nodding slightly and looking down.

Her heart was pounding in her chest painfully and she was two seconds away from bolting, from going back to Benjy and telling him they should try for another go. It was easy with Benjy. He obviously liked her and she didn't mind him and it would be terribly easy to date him for awhile.

But she was a Gryffindor, she reminded herself, and if she couldn't be brave about this, how would she be brave enough to help fight back against Voldemort.

"I'm glad it was you."

"Oh?" He looked up. "G—Glad I could help. I should go find Peter."

"You already used that excuse." Lily smiled. She pushed his shoulder back until he was leaning against the wall again and leaned next to him. "Wall's cold."

"Yeah."

"Can I tell you something?"

He shrugged, staring at her. "Course you can."

"I'm really glad it wasn't Sirius."

James said nothing for a moment. When Lily glanced over, he was staring straight ahead and fighting a smile. "Me too."


End file.
